How Jesus Comforts Us with His Compassion
How Jesus Comforts Us with His Compassion
The text message punched me in the gut. I stood there, the tears pouring down my cheeks as I held the grief of someone I knew in my hands. Tragedy. Unknowable pain. Grief and loss filled the air around me. I immediately called my husband, “You’ll never believe what I just heard!”
Those messages stay with us. Those moments in time when we hear of another’s pain and heartache are etched into our memory. The tears for their pain, the sick feeling in our stomach for their loss, the urge to call, send a meal, buy flowers, do anything is all because of one little word:
Compassion.
What is Compassion?
The dictionary defines it as “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.” Our hearts are bent in sympathy, and we want to do something!
Have you ever heard of others’ pain and suffering or grief and loss and wished just to alleviate it in some way? To take away the feelings for them and make things better? If we’ve had any friends at all we know what that feels like to want to help. That is compassion. We as humans don’t have this feeling because we are human, but because we are made in the image of God, who is the God of all comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7) The desire to comfort others stems from God’s very heart. The Bible is clear on this.
Jesus’ Compassion
Reading through the Gospel of Mark I’ve seen over and over again Jesus’ compassion for those around Him. The desire to comfort the poor, the sick, the cast-out was so strong in Jesus that in the Gospel of Mark especially we see Him constantly being surrounded by crowds healing the sick and casting out demons. He was “moved with compassion” over and over again.
In Dane Orlund’s book, “Gentle and Lowly,” he points out that Jesus’ very heart is drawn to not repulsed) by the sick, the poor, and the sinners. Our weakness, our pain, our suffering, and our griefs do not keep Jesus away, but actually draw Jesus toward us. His compassion for us is not because of pity or simply duty, but because of this deep love and ultimate desire to do something about our pain.
Why does Jesus heal the sick, cast out demons, and speak life to those that our suffering? Yes, He wants to elevate their physical suffering, but Jesus came for our spiritual suffering. Jesus came so that we may have the ultimate healing: the forgiveness of sins. In the Gospel of Mark we read about a man who cannot walk. He is brought to Jesus and instead of healing him right away, Jesus says “Your sins are forgiven.” The religious leaders doubt in their hearts and condemn Jesus, because only God can forgive sins. Jesus has authority to forgive sins but it also flows from his compassion to forgive sins.
Tweet ThisGod’s Heart
We often think that if we believe in Jesus God “must” forgive us. And in a sense this is true, but where does this grace, mercy, and forgiveness really come from? God’s heart! We see this in one of my favorite passages in scripture.
In Exodus 34 Moses is on the mountain with God and asks to see God’s glory. In those verses, God describes His glory as “stead-fast love.” Compassion! God’s forgiveness for our sins flows directly from God’s heart of love and compassion for us.
God Cares
Not only that, God cares about our physical pain as well. Our sins are our greatest need, but God does not condemn us or feel sorry for us when we have a physical need as well. God is the God of all comfort. In 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 Paul is talking about comfort for physical pain as well. God cares about us and knows that we are frail and live in a world filled with heartache.
God has taken care of our greatest need (spiritual salvation) and I believe God cares about our physical as well. I’ll admit when pain lingers or confusion doesn’t go away or grief continues to threaten my heart, I wonder if God cares. I only have to go to scripture to see that He indeed does. Taking away the pain seems like the best answer,but often God allows pain to linger so that he can sit with us, teach us, and help us go through the pain with Him.
I often wish that Jesus would heal and cast out demons today like He did in the Gospel of Mark, but just because we don’t physically see Him doing this doesn’t mean Jesus isn’t working in our lives. In fact, we can take great comfort in the fact that these stories point us to His compassion and when we realize that this compassion is still available to us, we can rejoice to know that we don’t have to wait for the physical Jesus to show up. He is already here. In the form of the Holy Spirit, to comfort us immediately!
Take comfort today in the compassion of Jesus.